Polar alignment without Polaris

[ispookie666]

Just about starting with star gazing, trying to find the best possible way to maximise the options from my house (have this as part of another thread) https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/19-getting-started-general-help-and-advice/

The sodium vapour lamp is just spilling light into the garden.  Other than putting up a big sail during observation, don't know what else to do.  

 

Part of my garden is well shielded and have reasonable view of the sky, but polaris is shielded by the house.  Is there a way to get polar alignment without polaris?  

[wimvb]

Skywatcher synscan (goto) mounts have an all star polar alignment feature. So do Celestron mounts, afaIk.

You put the (eq) mount in a position where it roughly points at Polaris. Use a compass and your latitude. Do a two- or three-star alignment. This will tell you your polar alignment error. You can then use the synscan polar alignment function.

If your mount doesn't have this feature, you can always do a drift alignment. For that, you need clear view to the South and East or West. There are good tutorials on line that will explain the procedure. 

Once you have the mount polar aligned, permanently mark the exact positions of the tripod legs on the ground. This will help next time you set up.

Edited July 19, 2021 by wimvb

[MARS1960]

You could also use Ipolar scope if your mount accepts one of the adapters.

Its a brilliantly simple piece of kit that had me perfectly (according to the Ipolar software) polar aligned in under 2mins.

It's one of the best things I ever bought.